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Aw, the joys of coming back to work from a 3 day weekend. Have you ever noticed there’s still 5 days of work that has to get done and you end up cramming it into 4? Or is that just me? Listen, don’t get me wrong, I’d totally take the long weekend over having to sit in my cell office with horrible lighting.

This afternoon I had a one on one with one of my direct reports. She proceeded to tell me how overwhelmed she was by all of the work she had to do. Maybe I’m crazy, but 3 projects really isn’t that big of a workload. Her pace is about as fast as a snail’s and she was used to being able to get away with that until I came around. I’ve got some expectations on pace: get your shit done. Stop shopping on line and talking to your friends all of the time and do your god damned job.

She burst into tears in my office while she cried about how she had so much to do at work and at home and she wasn’t getting down time. I handed her a box of tissues and controlled my eye rolling as best as I could. On the inside I was shouting, “stop crying and do your work.” On the outside I just blinked and nodded.

This work is not that hard. Really, it’s not. And if you’ve been sitting on something for 2 weeks because you don’t know how to do it and the deadline is coming – guess what? I’m not going to move the deadline. That shit is on you to figure it out or ask question. Ignoring something isn’t going to go away. It’s like an STD, you can’t wish crabs away. You also can’t wish your work or deadlines away.